Naslov (srp)

New age duhovnost i kultura neoliberalizma: modusi hegemonije : doktorska disertacija

Autor

Kauzlarić, Goran, 1987-

Doprinosi

Simić, Marina, 1978-
Radulović, Lidija B., 1964-
Pavićević, Đorđe, 1966-

Opis (eng)

Starting in the mid-1970s, a religious phenomenon (New Age spirituality), and a political phenomenon (neoliberalism), went through a simultaneous ascent. Both phenomena made a deep mark in contemporary culture. Emerging from the sixties counterculture, but with roots in much longer genealogies of Western esotericism, New Age spirituality has morphed into a vast "spiritual market" already during the ’80s. Interwoven with various different practices of consumption or ideological narratives, New Age spirituality is often understood from the point of view of its connections with contemporary post-Fordist or neoliberalized capitalism, or its "new spirit". Scholars usually approach this problem from the point of view of the "individualization" of religion and its conversion into "spiritual commodities". In such a perspective, signifier New Age refers to a type of spiritual combinatorics in the free market, in which individuals, following their own "taste", choose eclectic elements and adapt them to the needs of their own. This dissertation, however, proposes a different program, a one which conceptualizes New Age and neoliberalism as two complex "thought collectives" who have equally complex worldviews. Starting from such an assumption, it develops a view of the historical "marriage" of neoliberalism and New Age spirituality, established already during the ’80s, asking about its historical preconditions, and about its ideological role in establishing a politico-theological logic of the New spirit of capitalism, i.e. today's hegemonic culture. New Age narratives and neoliberalism not only have experienced a parallel rise, but they have the same cultural prehistory as well, as they were born simultaneously, at the interwar period. They were therefore marked by similar socio-political problems, and are connected to some similar cultural streams. Therefore, they can be approached from the standpoint of "elective affinity", the concept introduced by Max Weber, and developed by Michael Löwy. This concept postulates the possibility of "mutual attraction" between different phenomena that possess some similarities in structure. These "similarities in structure", i.e., homology, under appropriate social circumstances, can be "activated", creating a mutual attraction, reinforcement, and even mixing of two or more phenomena into a "new figure". Processes of elective affinity between neoliberalism and New Age religion did not produce an equal marriage but a relationship of subordination, in which neoliberalism draws its power from the wealth of cultural images that the New Age movement has developed. This politico-theological problem has to be approached on the theoretical basis of the critique of ideology (which this dissertation does, via the theories of Roland Barthes and Fredric Jameson), while the politico-theological comparison of these phenomena can shed a new light not only on ideological roles New Age narratives played in the regeneration of cultural hegemony after the defeat of progressive social forces and establishment of a new regime of capital accumulation since the end of the ’70s, but also on still neglected problem of the politico-theological "anatomy" of neoliberalism itself, showing, among other things, that neoliberals have been developing their own forms of spirituality and "counterculture". The few authors who approached neoliberalism from the politico-theological point of view, such as Adam Kotsko, Giorgio Agamben, Dotan Leshem, have done that (with some exception of Joshua Ramey), on the basis of Christian theology, and often with an inadequate insight into ideas of actual neoliberals. This occurred due to an academic delay (equally strong) in understanding of history and ideational nature of both Western esotericism, and neoliberalism. Building on existing new historiographical developments in these two mutually quite distant fields, this dissertation strives to examine the coordinates of a possible new politico-theological program, which would connect them. It does that through the discussion of implicit or active affinities that exist between neoliberalism and New Age spirituality, understood as two related types of cultural critique. These critiques of culture have developed similar views on a number of problems, such as limitations of human rationality, the need for a re-enchantment of society or for reapprochement of science and religion, as well as related forms of anti-cartesianism and holism/emergentism. Neoliberalism and New Age owe these similarities to various "mediators" and common problems (to which they produced homologous answers), and even to some actual common sources – from the socio-material dynamics of capitalism, to concrete historical phenomena such as cybernetics, or philosophy of life (vitalism). Based on these similarities, New Age and Neoliberalism have fused into images of the birth of a "new society", based on cybernetic/reticular/informational/network paradigm at the heart of the "New spirit of capitalism" as this notion is understood by Luc Boltanski and Eve Chiapello. The ideas about the evolution of human consciousness, at the threshold of an epochal change, had a political decomposition of the Fordist working class, and the rise of the new neoliberalized meta-political consensus, as their real contents. In that light, the problematization of the neglected question of the "public significance" of New Age spirituality, which would overcome the frequent reduction of its relation to neoliberalism to the issues of individualism and consumerism, is possible only on the basis of the explanation of the role these complexly interwoven ideological narratives played in this epochal historical turn. With the intention to contribute to the opening of these problems from a politico-theological angle, this dissertation joins the emerging "third wave" of New Age studies, that treats New Age religion not as a trivial phenomenon, but as a phenomenon which deserves a central place in contemporary debates on religion, culture and politics

Opis (srp)

Od sredine sedamdesetih godina 20. veka, jedna religijska pojava (New Age duhovnost) i jedna politička pojava (neoliberalizam), doživele su istovremen uspon. Oba fenomena su duboko obeležila savremenu kulturu. Izronivši iz kontrakulture šezdesetih godina, ali sa korenima u mnogo dužim genealogijama zapadnog ezoterizma, New Age duhovnost je već tokom osamdesetih godina prerasla u teško pregledno „spiritualno tržište“. Upletena u različite prakse potrošnje ili ideološke narative, New Age duhovnost je obrađivana od strane broja različitih radova iz ugla njenih veza sa savremenim post-fordističkim ili neoliberalizovanim kapitalizmom, ili njegovim „Novim duhom“. Istraživanja su, mahom, problemu prilazila iz ugla „individualizacije“ religije i njenog pretvaranja u „spiritualnu robu“. U takvom rakursu, New Age je označilac koji se odnosi na svojevrsne prakse duhovne kombinatorike na slobodnom tržištu, u kojima individue, po nahođenju, biraju eklektične sadržaje i prilagođavaju ih potrebama svog sopstva. Ova disertacija, međutim, nastoji da predloži drugačiji program, koji bi New Age duhovnost i neoliberalizam razumeo kao dva vrlo kompleksna „misaona kolektiva“ sa podjednako kompleksnim pogledima na svet. Polazeći od te pretpostavke ona razvija pogled na istorijski „brak“ neoliberalizma i New Age duhovnosti, do koga je došlo već tokom osamdesetih, pitajući se o njegovim istorijskim preduslovima, i o njegovoj ideološkoj ulozi u uspostavljanju politiko-teološke logike Novog duha kapitalizma, tj. današnje hegemone kulture.New Age narativi i neoliberalizam ne samo da su doživeli paralelan uspon, već imaju i istu kulturnu predistoriju, budući da su istovremeno rođeni u međuratno vreme. Oni su stoga obeleženi i sličnim društveno-političkim problemima, i povezani sa sličnim kulturnim tokovima. Zato im je moguće prići iz ugla pojma „elektivnog afiniteta“, koji je uveo Maks Veber a razradio Majkl Levi. Taj koncept postulira mogućnost „uzajamnog privlačenja“ između različitih pojava, koje poseduju sličnosti u strukturi. Te „sličnosti u strukturi“ tj. homologije se, pod odgovarajućima društvenim okolnostima, mogu „aktivirati“ stvarajući uzajamnu atrakciju, pojačanje, čak i mešanje dva ili više fenomena, iz čega može nastati i „nova figura“. Procesi elektivnog afiniteta između neoliberalizma i New Age religije nisu proizveli ravnopravan brak već odnos podređenosti, u kome neoliberalizam crpe moć iz bogatsva kulturnih predstava koje je New Age pokret razvijao. Tom politiko-teološkom problemu je potrebno prići iz ugla kritike ideologije (što ova disertacija čini putem teorija Rolana Barta i Frederika Džejmsona), dok politiko-teološko poređenje ovih pojava može reći mnogo toga novog ne samo o ideološkim ulogama New Age narativa u regenreaciji kulturne hegemonije, nakon poraza progresivnih snaga i prelaska na novi režim akumulacije kapitala, s kraja sedamdesetih, već i o, još uvek zanemarenom, problemu politiko-teološke „anatomije“ neoliberalizma, pokazujući, između ostalog, da su neoliberali razvijali svoje oblike spiritualnosti i „kontrakulture“.Malobrojni autori i autorke koji su neoliberalizmu prišli iz politiko-teološkog ugla, poput npr. Adama Kotska, Đorđa Agambena, Dotana Lešema, to su činili (uz izvestan izuzetak Džošue Rejmija) na bazi hrišćanske teologije, a često uz neadekvatan uvid u ideje stvarnih neoliberala. Do toga je došlo zbog akademskog zakašnjenja (jednako ogromnog) u razumevanju istorije i ideacione prirode zapadnog ezoterizma, i neoliberalizma. Nadovezujući se na nove istoriografske razvitke u te dve međusobno veoma udaljene oblasti, ova disertacija teži da ispita koordinate mogućeg novog politiko-teološkog programa, koji bi ih povezao. Ona to čini kroz diskusiju implicitnih ili aktivnih afiniteta koji postoje između neoliberalizma i New Age duhovnosti, koje razume kao dve srodne kritike kulture. Ove kritike kulture su razvile sličan pogled na niz problema, poput ograničenosti ljudske racionalnosti, potrebe za začaravanjem društva ili približavanjem nauke i religije, te srodne oblike anti-kartezijanstva i holizma/emergentizma. Te srodnosti, neoliberalizam i New Age duguju „posrednicima“, zajedničkim problemima (na koje su predlagali homologne odgovore) pa i nekim zajedničkim izvorima – od društveno-materijalne dinamike samog kapitalizma, pa do konkretnih istorijskih fenomena poput kibernetike, ili pak filozofije života (vitalizma). Na bazi ovih srodnosti, New Age i neoliberalizam „slili“ su se u ideološke predstave o rađanju „novog društva“ zasnovane na kibernetičkoj/retikularnoj/informacionoj/mrežnoj paradigmi, u srcu „Novog duha kapitalizma“, kako taj pojam razumeju Lik Boltanski i Ev Šijapelo. Predstave o evoluciji ljudske svesti, na pragu epohalne promene, kao svoj stvarni sadržaj imale su političku dekompoziciju fordističke radničke klase, ali i uspon novog neoliberalizovanog meta-političkog konsenzusa. U tom pogledu, otvaranje zanemarenog problema „javnog značaja“ New Age duhovnosti, koje bi prevazišlo često svođenje njene veze sa neoliberalizmom na pitanje indivualizma tj. konzumerizma, moguće je samo na bazi objašnjenja uloge ovog zamršenog spleta ideoloških narativa u tom epohalnom preokretu. U želji da iz politiko-teološkog ugla da doprinos otvaranju takvog problema ovaj rad se pridružuje „trećem talasu“ New Age studija koji New Age religiju, umesto kao trivijalan fenomen, razume kao pojavu koja zavređuje mesto u samom centru savremenih rasprava o religiji, kulturi i politici.

Opis (srp)

Političke nauke - Teorija kulture i studije kulture / Political science - Theory of culture and cultural studies Datum odbrane: 30.09.2021.

Jezik

srpski

Datum

2021

Licenca

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Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 AT - Creative Commons Autorstvo - Nekomercijalno - Bez prerada 3.0 Austria License.

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Predmet

OSNO - Opšta sistematizacija naučnih oblasti, Političke nauke

OSNO - Opšta sistematizacija naučnih oblasti, Socijalna i kulturna antropologija

New Age movement, spirituality, neoliberalism, spirit of capitalism, political theology

OSNO - Opšta sistematizacija naučnih oblasti, Političke nauke

OSNO - Opšta sistematizacija naučnih oblasti, Socijalna i kulturna antropologija

New Age pokret, spiritualnost, neoliberalizam, duh kapitalizma, politička teologija